NaNoWriMo 2014: A Fairy Has Stolen Your Soul, Avril!

A Fairy Has Stolen Your Soul, Avril! is the title of my novel for this year's NaNoWriMo. Here's the synopsis from my NaNo profile:

Ten-year-old Avril Brown has made a friend, a fairy who shows up at the playground one afternoon. He is magical and charming, and after the thing with the wolves (she'd rather not discuss it) Avril is only too ready to launch her new life of fantastical adventures and whimsical shenanigans with her new best friend.

Then the fairy steals her soul and runs away. Avril has a ragged hole in the middle of her that nobody else can see and her parents can't fix. Now, using only her wits and determination, a peculiar fu dog statuette, and a plush seal, Avril must pursue the fairy clear across town and well beyond if she wants to get her soul back--and find out why someone would do something like this to a person.

At halfway through the month I've reached 25144 words. So far our temporarily soul-less heroine Avril has met (and lost, alas, at least for now) a magical fu dog statue, talked to a Goblin Bear and a wolf made of leaves, been sent back in time by a skeleton with a head cold, and fallen off the antlers of an elk made of clouds. She is currently lost in a labyrinth, which is also full of ghosts. More on this situation as it develops.

Below the cut is a brief excerpt:



“But I’ve been here before,” Avril said. “I’ve been here loads of times. What about when I came here with the fairy? Why didn’t you say anything then?”

“I don’t know,” said the wolf made of leaves. “I’m sorry. I don’t know when I’m going to wake, or why. I go where I’m sent and say what I’m given. I don’t recall you coming here before, but I would like to help you if I can. Is the fairy important?”

Was the fairy important? Avril could not even get the right words for an answer into her mouth. She felt strongly that this situation was terribly unfair—that there had been a wolf made of leaves in these woods all along, maybe watching her, and she hadn’t known it. That this wolf had only showed himself now, for reasons unknown. That this wolf wanted to help now, instead of earlier when she had come to the playground and wished so hard that something would happen to make everything right. It all seemed like too little, too late.

“He was my fairy,” was what she said. “He came from the trees. We were friends. He gave me a notebook. And then he stole my soul and now he’s gone.”